Hans and Carrie Jørgensen sailed around the world searching for a place to grow their favorite grape, Syrah. Landing in the Algarve and finding their way into the expansive landscape of Alentejo, in 1988 they established a vineyard on bare land and rebuilt an abandoned ruin to live in. Hans, a Dane who made his fortune as an engineer in Malaysia and Carrie, bringing her native Californian free spiritedness, the two were maverick outsiders from the start. These New Worlders brought something different to Alentejo, while Alentejo, the tolerant ‘wild west’ of Portugal, allowed them space to do their own thing.

From the start Cima’s wines were technologically driven and unabashedly New World in style –  focused more on French grapes rather than Portuguese grapes and local traditions. In the early days the DOC didn’t allow Syrah as an official grape, so Cima labeled theirs ‘Incognito.’ Later the DOC changed its mind and made it a sanctioned grape. So far Cortes de Cima have chosen to remain outside Alentejo’s DOC system, although that may change in future.

Over time there has been an evolution in Cortes de Cima’s relationship with Alentejo. As locals came to appreciate Cima’s irreverent marketing, innovation and experimentation, CdC in turn have absorbed or adapted some of Alentejo’s distinctive grapes and traditional styles into their mix.

One big change has been a shift in their use of talha - from architectural decoration, back into a revolutionary wine making vessel. This change is driven by their daughter, Anna Jørgensen, who returned home after completing a viticulture and oenology degree from University of Adelaide. Not to mention having worked in Australia’s four main regions (Barossa, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills, Hunter Valley), New Zealand, California’s Russian River and France (Burgundy and Northern Rhone).

Where the previous winemaker had experimented with maturing wine in small clay 100-160 liter jugs, Jørgensen moved away from these, not liking the results. Her team compared wines aged in oak versus the jars, finding the latter developed too quickly, ‘after about 10 months they appeared drier and duller compared to the oak aged equivalent.’ They proved difficult to clean, too porous from low firing temperatures and fragile, in particular the lip where the bung sits was far too easily broken. On top of that, they were too expensive and labor intensive compared to talha. Talha, at ten times the size, were also far less oxidative.

Jørgensen came to see talha as, ‘a creative space for us to explore,’ sometimes following the DOC guidelines, sometimes not. When I last visited in August 2021, their current Daqui 2021 sat bubbling away in a big talha, alongside smaller talhas containing a white Viognier and a Palhete (traditional blend of red and white wine) made with whole clustered Syrah, co-fermented with Viognier. They also had a talha driven Petillant Naturel produced from Touriga Franca.

They consider their mainline Daqui (meaning ‘from here’) to be a ‘moving’ interpretation of talha. While their old 2000 liter talha remains the constant, the grapes may change. One year a 50/50 blend of Aragonez and Trincadeira, another year, Touriga Franca.

The 2020 Daqui probably could have qualified for DOC status given it followed all the rules. Organically farmed Touriga Franca, it used 1/3 whole bunches to line the bottom for later natural filtration. It was foot trodden to create gentle extraction during fermentation, didn’t use temperature control or chemical additions and went through a traditional three month maceration. On St Martin’s day (11th November) it was drained through the mãe or mother into a tank, given a touch of sulfur and left to stabilize naturally during winter.  Eventually 1200 bottles were hand bottled in the spring.

Although Cortes de Cima came to the talha party relatively late, their outsider’s perspective is producing an interesting mixed approach to modern and old practices. One stream follows the classical traditional formula of making wine using local grapes in talha within the St. Martin’s Day time frame, while a second parallel stream is exploring how French grapes can be reshaped by talha’s ancient technology.

Anyone who has seen the row of empty talha out behind the winery knows there are more interesting things to come.

Cortes de Cima Wines

Cortes de Cima Daqui Branco 2022 

Cortes de Cima Daqui Branco 2021 

Cortes de Cima Daqui 2020 

Cortes de Cima Palhete 2022